Passover Fruit Crisp

by Linda Capeloto Sendowski on March 31, 2011

Two Friday nights ago my husband and I were in Rancho Mirage for Shabbat. After making that new cauliflower plantain dish to serve with Desert Chicken, fruit crisp sounded like a compatible dessert. I combined:

2 pints of strawberries, washed and halved

2 Bartlett pears, peeled, cored, and diced

1 6 ounce container of blueberries, washed and dried

3 Rhubarb stalks, washed and diced

2 small clamshells of blackberries, washed and dried

With

½ cup of granulated sugar

½ cup packed light brown sugar

½ teaspoon cinnamon

Divide fruit into 8 ramekins and then combine the topping ingredients:

1 cup old fashioned oatmeal

1 cup of unbleached flour

2/3 cup packed light brown sugar

½ teaspoon cinnamon

Next:

Cut in 7 tablespoons of cold butter or parave margarine.

Divide the crumbly topping amongst the ramekins. Place all of the ramekins on a baking sheet in order to catch any fruit drippings, and bake them in a preheated to 345° oven until the topping is browned and crunchy looking and the fruit is bubbling up around the topping. Serve warm or room temperature.

When we returned home on Sunday night I was thinking what a lovely light dessert fruit crisp is and how nice it would be to serve for the Passover Seder. After visiting the Santa Monica Farmer’s Market on Wednesday I created this kosher for Passover Fruit Crisp

Mixed the fruit together, and then add the sugar, lemon juice, sugar, maple syrup, and cinnamon. Divide the fruit filling among 8 ramekins or 10 smaller size ramekins. Place the ramekins or a baking sheet to catch any fruit drippings.

Combine all of the topping ingredients except the margarine. Then, cut in the margarine using the tips of your fingers until the topping is chunky and the margarine pieces are smaller than peas. Evenly divide the topping and spread over the tops of the ramekins. Bake the crisp in a preheated 350°oven until the topping looks golden and crisp and the fruit filling is bubbling up around the topping about 25 minutes. Serve warm or cool with whipped topping if you wish.

Depending on where your community is located you may be able to find Passover brown sugar to use in the topping instead of Passover powdered sugar. If your local store doesn’t stock either you can probably order this product kosher for Passover on line.

Feel free to alter the fruit depending on what is fresh and local in your area.

In a word: perfection. Make that two words, actually. Add the word ‘delicious’ as a prefix. I agree with you – I think this makes the perfect after the main course at the seder. Healthy, light, tasty, colourful, refreshing and delicious – that equals perfect
in my book. Thanks for sharing, Linda.

I couldn’t agree more with Greek Girl, it just looks perfect. We always make the same desserts year after year, while they mean Pesach to us, it’s also nice to have a new addition.
Linda, I don’t use margarine, do you think I could substitute coconut oil? If not, I could always use butter, thank you for sharing the recipe and the beautiful photos Linda.

Thank you Linda, I’ll let you how it turns out with the coconut oil. I use virgin coconut oil regularly but I read a few articles over the last few weeks about the health benefits and now I am making more of effort to include it in our food. Thanks again!

Hi Megi! I use coconut oil more and more these days, both in cooking (especially Indian or Chinese dishes). True, it is ‘heavier’ than butter (but not by much), but I think it’s healthier for you.

Two weeks ago, I used it in my kasha varnishkes, and my hubby gave it a thumbs up (although he does prefer it to be made with butter, he still enjoyed the slight flavour change).

I use coconut oil in another way, as well, and that is as a skin and hair moisturiser.
I’ve thrown out all those chemical-laden creams (even the ones that claim to be all’natural and organic, and just take a very small amount of coconut oil, rub it into my hands, and then just smooth it out onto my face, both in the morning and right before I go to bed at night. It makes my hands, my skin and even my hair feel (and look) great. Of course, I have two separate jars – one in the kitchen for cooking and one in the bathroom for the cosmetic-y stuff.

Hi Greek Girl, I use coconut oil on my hands and it’s amazing! For cooking, I like to use it to saute and roast vegetables, in curries and baked goods. I think it’s a great replacement for butter and healthier one too. Don’t get me wrong, I love the flavour of butter! These cookies (http://www.lindentea.com/?p=2807) are one of my husband’s favorites, it doesn’t use butter or any kind of dairy and happens to have the buttery texture of cookies thanks to the coconut oil.

I buy my jars of coconut oil from an Indian/Middle Eastern shop, and they’re already solidified, so there’s no need to store them in the fridge. I think, though, that you can also find them in a liquified state, but I’ve not come across that personally. I just keep my two jars out in the open, not in the fridge (though that wouldn’t be a problem if you wanted to store it in the fridge, I wouldn’t think), at room temperature.

A frequent question that people who’ve never used coconut oil (in cooking, especially) ask is if the food cooked with coconut oil will have a strong scent or taste of coconut. I thought that too at first, but it’s definitely not the case. There’s barely a hint (if that, even) of a coconut smell (which I do love, especially for my skin and hair as a moisturiser) when you open the jar, but again, barely even barely a hint of it.

So there’s no need to worry that a savoury dish would wind up tasting of coconut. Or even a sweet pastry dish, for that matter. It’s almost a neutral smell and taste. I use it because it’s much healthier for you than butter and is better for digestion than butter, and it’s excellent value for money, compared to butter.

Next time you pass by an Asian / Indian / Middle Eastern market, have a look. I use either the ‘Pride’ or ‘TRS’ brands (both made in India). The jars come in a few sizes, so if you’re a bit iffy about trying it out, you can find a little jar of it just as easily.

Hi again Megi – I just clicked on that recipe you shared with us for coconut apricot cookies, and immediately subscribed to the LindenTea blog. Thanks for leading me there. It’s an excellent blog, and will definitely be trying out some of the recipes there.

I am so glad to hear you like the blog Greek Girl, thank you, I would love to hear your feedback in the future.

Excellent information on coconut oil too, I just have couple of things to add. Linda, if you are going to buy coconut oil, do make sure it’s virgin, the virgin coconut oil melts at 25 degrees Celcius whereas the regular kind is very, very processed, it has no flavour or aroma and melts at 37 degrees, so it’s solid in the body! My naturopath friend recommended keeping the one the you use on my skin in the fridge because she says that way it’s easier to take just a little. I buy a few at a time and keep the open one on the counter for cooking, it’s solid in the winter and liquid during the hot summer months.

I use the brand Nutiva, it has got a nice aroma but once you cook with it, you can barely taste the coconut oil. I hope you give it a try, it has amazing health benefits!